Still in good memory of the va-garies caused by asbestosis in the area, the community of Heuningvlei is up in arms by yet ano-ther attempt to extract the alleged deeply embedded valuables under-ground. A reconnaissance visit by the Ka-thu Gazette in Heuningvlei, esta-blished that a man (name supplied) outside the region discovered gem-stones in the area. The man ap-proached the chief of the area and explained that he was interested in operating the mine. Trust members allied to the chief and the chief him-self then approached the community to introduce the prospective miner early in October 2017. The chief and his trust members explained at length to convince the community to buy in the idea. The saying, “a burnt child dreads fire” came to the fore from the community as these are the victims of asbestos mining. Embarrassingly, the community was firstly perturbed by the fact that the trust introduced to it was not known or had never been introduced at any given time in the past. The chief, speaking on behalf of the prospective miner, explained his intentions to the community, saying that he had discovered gemstones in the area, but did not specify the type of the gemstone. In the proposal tentatively agreed upon between the prospective miner and the chief, the prospective miner is said to have stated that, “I will start employing twenty locals all drawn from all villages under the chief and I will give 5% of the proceeds to the community, 10% to the trust and 15% for the workers. All these vil-lages will be represented in the mi-ning project”. The community then reverberated by asking a torrent of questions, which when answered appropriate-ly, would have unlocked the legitimi-sation of the initial operation of the mine. The community demanded a written constitutional agreement be-fore a consensus could be reached. This, according to a community member interviewed, did not go down well with the trust members and the chief. The chief is alleged to have said, “You will die poor” imply-ing that the community was delaying the whole process. In mid November 2017, the chief invited the community to the tribal office to introduce the miner officially and the community responded ac-cordingly. The meeting had similar statements where 20 locals had to be employed and the allocation of percentages from the proceeds. The first question by the communi-ty was, “Which trust is to benefit as this was a new vocabulary in the area ?” The meeting is said to have been aborted, but some days later, the miner allegedly had his team on the site digging the alleged gem-stones in question. The community stopped the “zama-zamas” at the site, but allegedly two truck-loads of ore had al-ready been extracted and ship-ped from the site.

February 03, 2018 around mid-night will be recorded as one of the strangest circuses where youths aged 13 - 20 in the vast village of Batlharos went amok and attacked members of the com-munity. The bizarre episode occurred at the RDP section where different gangsters calling themselves The Russians, the Perks and the Big Five presented barbaric acts of mischief. It is believed the groups have a specific house in the section where they assemble and strategise how they could orchestrate their acts of terrorism. In this incident, all hell broke loose at a tavern when four community members were stabbed. Three of them were critically wounded and were referred to Kimberley hospital. According to Mr Bruce Mosiapoa, a community member in the area, the groups then attacked a couple of vehicles in which wind and bonnet screens were shattered badly. This led to the confrontation with mem-bers of the community at the tavern. From the head quarter house, the notorious groups went from house to house breaking in and beating and injuring some occupants.The following morning, the com-munity, agitated and fuming, went to the Batlharos police station to pro-test about the lack of rapid reaction by the police to the social mishap. Brigadier Kenneth Baloyi from Kuruman police station had to inter-vene, because the community was riled by another ugly scene, as the gangsters had also attacked a police minibus. Parents of these deviant children were shocked to learn that their children had been among the cul-prits. The community raised the com-plaint as to why the juveniles of this day and age are not detained. They have become a thorn in the flesh to society. The community believes that legislation is tampered with by parliament and current legislation has become obsolete, hence child-ren do as they wish in front of pa-rents and police alike. Parents be-moan the misuse of human rights rhetoric in the country as the lack of discipline among children and the police whose role in restoring peace and order has become powerless.

Northern Cape Education MEC Pauline Williams visited Bosele Middle School under Chief Jantjie that had one of its teachers stabbed to death on 12 January 2018 by a grade eight learner for allegedly causing him to fail.In her sombre and conciliatory tone, she said that while this was a sad story recorded in the history of the department and the community at large, both families are in great shock and needed remedial therapy to contain their traumatic ex-perience. Accompanied by the chief, depart-mental heads, the district executive ma-yor Sofia Mosikatsi, the Joe Morolong mayor councillor Dineo Leutlwetse and other dignitaries from sector depart-ments, Ms Williams had come to pay her last respects to the slain teacher, as well as to meet both families. The chief had requested her to be part of the delegation that could intervene effectively in the em-broiled families.She disclosed that the department would contribute towards the funeral, as the Zimbabwean teacher had made a great contribution to the development of the district. The family had arranged that the body must be repatriated to Zimbab-we. Audio footage recorded during the fra-cas by the deceased's friend of the whole tragedy, reveals that the teenager had the intention to kill as he physically want-ed to meet the teacher, despite the fact that they could audibly exchange words and resolve the sagacious matter while the culprit was outside the house.The learner had initially broken the win-dows of the house and had snatched a cellphone of the deceased, whereupon the teacher finally came out of the house to settle the argument and to get his phone. This was when he resultantly met his final demise.It was also revealed in the audio foot-age, that the teacher had already been injured as the learner had thrown stones that had broken the windows, enabling him to snatch the phone. The learner further disclosed in the au-dio that he was not himself, but had been driven by the influence of drugs he had consumed. One of the teachers at the school also revealed that the learner was often careless and did not write all the exami-nations, because he would abscond randomly.

A resurgence of road protests is in the brewing if relevant authorities can-not gather their act together. This development comes after the com-munity has witnessed a somewhat “stop and go” approach by contractors in the con-struction of the 130km sagacious road(s) that led to the destruction and eventual closure of schools in the district in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In an interview with the chairperson of the road forum, Mr Kagiso Gaborokwe con-ceded that the community has been keep-ing an eagle's eye and of late, has voiced its dissatisfaction about the sporadic pace and now the zeroed construction on the roads in contention. Since the agreement two years or so ago, contractors have hardly completed the twenty-kilometre mark on either sides of the targeted roads. Mr Gaborokwe said that several meetings have been hanging, involving the local au-thorities and the department of Roads and Public Works. He continued, “The forum is very keen to engage with the concerned parties to es-tablish challenges encountered and to find a common consensus on the way forward. Above all, the community deserves to know why there is very slow progress in the con-struction. “On the Rusfontein-Laxey road, only ten kilometres have been completed and the sokolo-Loopeng road will now be gravelled instead, including the Dithakong-Bothithong road. “As the road forum, we have been request-ing and are still requesting a meeting with the department, with Joe Morolong and the dis-trict municipalities and funders to get clarity on the issues arising to avoid yet another road re-prisal. In short, we want to know who is failing to keep the initial agreement,” Mr Gaborokwe concluded. contractor is on another 10 kilometre peg along the Pepsi-Laxey, still doddering to be accomplished. The Colston-Dithakong road is in a similar dilemma. Only ten kilometres have been completed and the contractor is limping due to possible lack of adequate funding to reach Dithakong.

The Northern Cape premier Ms Sylvia Lucas and the MEC of Sports, Arts and Culture Ms Bongiwe Mbingo-Gigaba officially handed over two libraries on Janu-ary 24 and 25, 2018 respectively. The premier handed over the Mos-weu Piet Melamu library at Logaga-neng village to the community, while the MEC handed over the Ester Mo-lete library at Churchill the following day. The initiative is part of the Northern Cape government’s effort to provide libraries to the community and to promote the culture of reading among learners, educators and the community at large. The Ester Molete becomes the re-gional library and was named after the late mayor of Joe Morolong who died mysteriously under suspicious circumstances after a short illness. Ms Molete’s mother and close re-latives were consulted before na-ming the library after her and they formed part of the dignitaries at the official opening. Speaking at the official handover of the library, MEC Mbingo-Gigaba said that libraries have become a ne-cessity to the development of the community. “These libraries have been strategically built to meet the interests of learners, students and the community in meeting their learning needs where research is a routine component. “As a mining region where science and mathematics are imperatives, these libraries are ideal sources of information.” In a theme dubbed “Reading to move South Africa forward” the MEC said that the late and former pre-sident Nelson Mandela encouraged everyone to go to school as a vital means of changing the world from the vagaries of dependence and po-verty, hence the availing of libraries is part of that fulfilment. The libraries are already equipped with relevant resources and which will become the property of the com-munities. Both the premier and the MEC advised the communities to take care of their fountains of know-ledge.

The communities of Magwagwe, Ske-ma, Ntswelengwe and Manyeding under ward 15 were up in arms over alleged skewed electricity supply prioritisa-tion on January 17, 2018. The road leading to the tribal office and surrounding schools was blockaded with boulders and motorists had difficulties to access them. According to the community a program-me to install electricity in these villages was reached sometime last year with first pri-ority targeting Manyeding village. However, the councillor is allegedly to have convin-ced the power utility, Eskom, to start instal-ling at Ntswelengwe where he stays. This did not go down well with the community as it felt cheated from the initial agreement. Asked to shed light on the matter, the councillor Itumeleng Matebesi, said that the protest had been orchestrated by the op-position that does not want to see progress initiated by the party in power. Another bone of contention in the village, is the renovation of the tribal office and the nearby clinic. The community said they were not inform-ed of these developments, meaning that the local leadership does not want to in-volve them on issues that directly affect them. The community remains resolute that where it is not involved, resistance shall be at the order of the day. At a community meeting held the follow-ing day between the community and the Joe Morolong local authority, also attended by the mayor Dineo Leulwetse, a tentative agreement was reached where the Eskom officials had to avail themselves on January 22, 2018 to answer the contentious issues. The Department of Health was also to be present to respond to questions about the clinic renovations.